The Game of Thrones season seven premiere finally arrived last night, and it was everything I hoped it would be! From the shocking (yet satisfying) cold open to that emotional and long-awaited ending, Game of Thrones didn’t miss a beat – expertly setting the stage for the season to come. It also gave us plenty to chew on before the next episode drops, so let dive into some interviews and videos for a closer look at “Dragonstone.”
First up, Maisie Williams opens up to Entertainment Weekly about Arya’s opening scene, in which she dons the face of the murdered Walder Frey to dish out some more vengeance on his house. “It’s so f—ed up!” she exclaims. “Even Arya is surprised she has so much power. In that last moment she’s staring out at all those men dying, she’s turned into a bit more of a monster than she’s ever realized. I don’t think she’s sad about that but she’s got it on her mind.” I’m not sure I’d use the word “monster” – at least she spared the Frey girls.
Williams also shares her idea for the end of the series, which of course involves more face changing by Arya. “I’ve always had this fantasy in the back of my head — I don’t think it’s a good ending and fans might not like it — but that somebody would sit on the Iron Throne at the end and then they whip their face off and it’s Arya instead,” she admits. “I’ve always had that dream.”
Head over to EW for more.
We also learn more about Euron Greyjoy’s reappearance from EW, as Pilou Asbaek shares his vision for the character this season. “He’s kind of a joker type. He doesn’t take anyone too seriously. He doesn’t take himself too seriously…So where he’s much more like a demon in the books, he’s much more f—ing enjoying himself here,” Asbaek explains. “Those psychopathic sociopaths I’ve met in my life are smiley and well-mannered and they’re the biggest pricks in the world.” He adds, “He’s such a f—ing idiot douchebag, an impolite selfish child.”
What does Euron make of Queen Cersei, First of Her Name? “The thing with Cersei is maybe she’s more man than a woman. She’s smart and intellectual and bloody sexy. But for Euron, the question is: ‘How can I become king of the Iron Throne?’” Asbaek says. With his niece and nephew allying with Daenerys, Euron looks to Cersei to get him there. “I think he considers her to be a worthy wife. Euron’s not a Lannister, he’s an Ironborn, she’s something better. There’s just one guy in the way…” Hopefully Euron won’t use his “two good hands” to remove Jaime from the picture!
You can read the entire interview at EW.
TVLine brings us an interview with John Bradley, who gives his insight into Sam’s feelings about the Citadel. “He’s not gone to the Citadel for an easy life for himself,” Bradley admits. “When he appealed to Jon Snow, he said, ‘Send me to the Citadel because that’s where I can do the most good… I will help you win this war.’ He wants to go to the Citadel and work, and find knowledge that he can apply that’s going to change the course of things for everybody.”
Unfortunately for Sam, it looks to be an uphill battle. “People at the Citadel are very keen on academia and knowledge for the sake of it. They’re quite keen to store all this knowledge and leave it on the shelf for a long time and never apply it. Sam doesn’t believe in that relationship with knowledge. He knows that knowledge isn’t powerful if it’s on the shelf… and not being applied,” Bradley explains.
The premiere also introduced us to Sam’s new mentor played by Jim Broadbent – Archmaester Ebrose (not Marwyn as some sites claim; confirmed by the HBO viewer guide). “He’s a fatherly figure,” Bradley says. “He’s a very wise old soul that Sam develops this relationship with.” Hopefully that “wise old soul” will take Sam’s White Walker warnings seriously – before it’s too late.
Check out the rest at TVLine.
Iain Glen talks to Vulture about Jorah’s future after his blink-and-you’ll-miss-it appearance last night. That is, if Jorah even has a future given the condition of his greyscale. “It’s very advanced. I’m in trouble,” Glen confesses. “No doubt about it, I’m in trouble.”
Jorah is still optimistic, however, after promising Daenerys he’d come back to her. “I got to a point where I think I was quite happy to die, I suppose,” Glen says, speaking of last season. “I’d sort of given up hope because I’d lost her affection and lost her belief in me. And the last moment of our time together last season she said, ‘I need you, I need you to look after yourself, find a cure, so you can come back and be beside me when I occupy the Iron Throne.’ That’s my route, really, this season — to see if I can find a cure.” Maybe Sam can smuggle some advanced medical books out of the library’s restricted section.
For the entire article, head to Vulture.
POTENTIAL SPOILERS FOR FUTURE EPISODES IN THIS SEGMENT!
We also have an interesting tidbit to dissect courtesy of Kim Renfro at Insider. She points out that in the HBO viewer guide official synopsis, there is an additional line in the script attributed to the Hound but not spoken on the show
“The waves are frozen” was left out of the Hound’s dialogue, so what significance could this have? If the Hound saw a vision of Eastwatch with frozen waves, could that provide an access point for the Night King and his army of the dead? They were left at Hardhome, which is perilously close to the Night’s Watch castle at Eastwatch – close enough for an army to cross the frozen sea and make their way around the Wall.
Of course, most fans theorize that the Wall will be breached somehow, allowing the White Walkers to launch a full scale invasion. If they have an alternate route, however, the danger may reach Westeros sooner than we think.
In the season’s first “Inside the Episode,” David Benioff and D.B. Weiss discuss that cold open, the Hound’s guilt and doubt, the Sansa/Jon conflict, Cersei’s lust for power, and Daenerys’ homecoming.
Pilou Asbaek, Lena Headey, and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau discuss the tension between their characters during Euron’s proposal.
Finally, Emilia Clarke, Nathalie Emmanuel, and Peter Dinklage discuss the significance of Dany’s arrival in Westeros.
Hodor!
Such a great episode. Sandor the fire reader. Oh the perfect irony.
Loved Euron. He messed with the Lannister minds. ☺
It would be really stupid if what we thought was an almost incurable disease was actually curable and maesters knew of it but somehow they chose to not apply that knowledge because they are ”collectors” and all the time the cure was just sitting on a shelf. It’s gonna be ridiculous if Sam just finds a book and simply cures Jorah lol, but I can’t see anything else happening.
Ya know, if this is how the WWs breach the wall I’ll be happy. Because the main thing I didn’t like about the Reddit leaks was
I’d always assumed that’s what brings the Wall down, maybe that’s not now the case.
Also- I see from the ep2 trailer that Ollena is in Dragonstone in the next episode, whereas the leaks stated that she never meets Dany (if I recall correctly). So possibly not all of the leaks are 100% correct..
Apollo,
Good because some of the leaks had great stuff and other things were very questionable. A lot of things have been correct but I’m sure the script and other things were tweaked in case of an imminent leak.
Edward,
Possibly/ hopefully. In all honesty I’d accepted their legitimacy, especially after the two trailers… but just maybe things will be a little different.
Apollo,
i think maybe some of this should be covered, even though you think the leak is wrong.
Why they are locking all these great videos like Inside the episode this season?
I’m interested in that scene very much. The combination of individuals is going to be a strange one to say the least. Daenerys with Olenna, Ellaria and Yara… That’s three women accustom to being in charge, or at least believing they are, in a position where they have to listen to another woman. I’ve been trying to guess what Daenerys is about to say when she turns after Yara says, “… we should hit King’s Landing now!” Her face doesn’t seem to precede an agreeable response.
Has anyone paused to look at the book Gilly is reading? Tales of the Long Night? It’s an almost word-for-word excerpt from World of Ice and Fire (chapter is called “The Long Night”). What’s even more important is on the next page, which you don’t get to see on the show.
I am quite looking forward to the Cersei-Euron interactions and dynamics this season. I had become completely bored of Cersei by Season 6 (despite the epic blow-up of the Sept and the Sparrows), especially of one-on-one Cersei scenes. But the scene with Euron breathed new life into that storyline! Bring it on and throw more Jaime discomfort in there! 🙂
Speaking of books they’re reading….
I hate to break it to you, but the book about dragonglass Sam is reading says something about it also being used in a cure for illness on the page opposite the Dragonstone map.
https://img.buzzfeed.com/buzzfeed-static/static/2017-07/17/5/asset/buzzfeed-prod-fastlane-03/sub-buzz-25385-1500284879-10.jpg?downsize=715:*&output-format=auto&output-quality=auto
“Iain Glen talks to Vulture about Jorah’s future after his blink-and-you’ll-miss-it appearance last night. That is, if Jorah even has a future given the condition of his greyscale. “It’s very advanced. I’m in trouble,” Glen confesses. “No doubt about it, I’m in trouble.””
Well I guess that means his arm wasn’t burnt. Darn. Sure looked like it though.
And EW reports: “Game of Thrones premiere ratings smash HBO records”
http://ew.com/tv/2017/07/17/game-of-thrones-season-7-premiere-ratings-smash-records/
watched it twice, so I could soak it all in. And next weeks trailer……..that wasn’t Ghost
Clob,
I’d be fine with dragonglass being the cure, but not so much with a revelation that the cure is out there known to maesters who for no apparent reason refuse to put it into practice.
I don’t see Arya as a monster in any way. I see her as someone who as a very young girl saw her father beheaded and also lost her mother and older brother to murder. She was separated from Sansa and had to learn to survive on her own at a very young age – far too young to be without a parent or guardian to protect her. I think she’s very hurt inside but I don’t think she’s a monster at all and quite frankly had I lived through what she did – I would probably want revenge on those responsible as well.
I love Maisie’s portrayal of her, there is just something about her that makes the character so believable – you can see the vulnerability in her eyes in spite of her actions. She’s not one dimensional is what I”m I’m trying to say.
I also noticed many people thought she was going to kill the soldiers when she came upon them but I interpreted her observations of them as her assessing whether or not it was safe for her – as a young female to stop and share a meal with them – and if it wasn’t what her chances were to escape with her life if it came to that. I’m not sure that’s how it was intended and perhaps I’m showing bias towards her character.
mariamb,
Omg.
Wow- great catch!!
Dee Stark,
Sorry- didn’t see anything that has been given away, as I only mentioned next weeks trailer and what allegedly won’t happen in S7.
Cover leak spoilers, assholes!
Anyway.
In the books
Apollo,
What you think won’t happen based on leak info is still a spoiler. Just cover anything that has to with them in any way shape or form. It’s not the difficult. People like you are making it impossible to even be here anymore. The mods do their best, but they can’t immediately look at each and every comment.
I’m about to start up the episode for the second time. I need a second watch. I super enjoyed watching Euron mess with Cersei and Jaime. Even though he’s pretty evil he’s fun to watch! Dinklage makes it sound like Tyrion has more feelings for Daenerys than just respect for his queen. That could be interesting and I’m kind of on board with that.
Apollo,
I really hope they show the ‘faked’ scenes they had the cast shoot as part of a DVD/BluRay extra or something.
mariamb,
Wow! Is that accurate? The 10.1 number is what we generally pay most attention to… That’s another massive jump from the series high of 8.89 for the S6 finale! The show continues to increase in numbers and every time it hits a high some people say that it can’t go up any more… and then it does.
mariamb,
An increase of 50%?! Holy moly.
Poor HBO. They’re going to be even less happy about letting Thrones go!!
weirwoodtreehugger,
Firstly- don’t call people here an asshole! It’s not that difficult to be civil. Read the rules.
Secondly- my spoiler was covered. And I’ve never spoiled anyone on here so get your facts right buddy.
What was uncovered was referring to next weeks teaser- and something that won’t happen- a minor technicality for which I apologised for.
Clob,
Is it there any TV show in history with ratings geting higher even after 7 seasons?
Clob,
I don’t understand these numbers very well. Last year it was 25 million per episode. What were those numbers?
You guys!!The ratings.Holy fuck!
While things are changing with additional platforms, the first airing Nielsen ratings have typically been what has drawn the most focus. That is the number we usually get Tuesday mornings. The series high was the 8.89 it had for the finale last year. As with the number across all platforms (the 25 mil), the Nielsen number has continued to increase incrementally throughout the series run.
mau,
I think that those numbers were out after the season was done so more time for people to watch and it was an average per season.Might be totally wring though
I’m a hbo now user and had so much issues with streaming Sunday’s episode. It kind of ruin the episode for me. Anyone else had streaming issues?
Clob,
I understand that. But I don’t understand this 16 millions thing for S7E1. They say it is 50% increase, but last year it was 25 million per episode. So what were those numbers last year?
10.1 million watched the premeire and this is a premium channel wow! Over 1 million more watched compared to the S6 finale!
Jenny,
Aha. Ok. Thank you. So this year there will be like 40 million? LOL
mau,
That was within 24 hours if I recall. So 10.1 million viewers is Nielsen’s rating we all pay attention to. Another record!
Agreed! Last season Euron seemed like the chubby drunk blustery uncle who showed up to spoil the party on a whim. Jack Black of the Iron Islands. I wondered if the casting was off.
This season he’s leaner, meaner, and has more of a manipulative determination about him. He’s still crude, but now I buy him as an antagonistic force. He’s also kinda hot, in a pirate-y way. I can see why Jaime would feel threatened.
I had a hard time getting the app to load and finally the artwork showed up on the main screen around 6:10 PT. But when I clicked on it, I was sent to S6. Had to reboot the app a dozen or more times (while cursing), but finally got the episode. Took four tries to get it to start playing. But once it started, the stream quality was excellent.
If all you had were access problems, then likely the issue was with the HBO app server due to heavy demand. If you had problems with the actual stream itself, most likely your ISP couldn’t handle the traffic well and was throttling speeds.
mau,
Well if the numbers continue this way I guess the average per episode after the season is done will go up a lot.
I kinda think Euron’s ship looks kinda like the cats paw dagger?
thorne garnet,
It’s Arya’s wolf nymeria
kathy,
totally agree with this. She is one of my favorite characters, along with Sam and the Hound (surprisingly)
In that home coming scene, I kept wonder, why weren’t the Greyjoys with her too?
Not surprising that they were not, but seems they should have been.
For Ep 2 it is interesting that Olenna Tyrell comes to Dragonstone, had not expected that.
Seems Ellaria has to be there in order to get her with the Greyjoys.
That’s quite a conclave of first string characters .
Clob, you beautiful creature.
I was smiling through that whole scene! Cersei is not sure what to make of him, She’s amused but bemused as Well, and Jaime’s hackles were up to his ears. Euro’s crazy as they come, but completely enjoys himself. I imagine he will also be downright terrifying when the occasion calls for it.
I know there has been avid discussion here regarding the disagreement between Sansa and Jon. Both sides have valid points so the discord will continue as it should.
However, I believe everyone can agree that the shot of the Karstark and Umber children pulling their swords out of their scabbards to swear fealty was very f*ckin’ cool 🙂
With the additional line by The Hound,
I am now more certain we will see a “Hardhome” style battle at Eastwatch. I started to get vissions of it as soon as Tormond said that’s where he’ll go, got shivers of “not my Tormund” noooooo he needs to win over Brienne!
Vanessa,
That meaty opening gave the phrase post-mortem particular resonance.
Pigeon,
Totally agree! Oh and I was also pretty captivated by the iron fleet entrance itself! The epic music of piratey dread ushering in the sight of that beautiful black ship kinda had my jaw on the floor.
Fleabottoms Home,
Haha aww… I know!! Damnit, Tormund stay near Brienne! I kinda fear for his life.
Yes, as well as their faint smiles and looks of relief when they realized they still had their heads.
mau,
From what I can gather, 10.1 million watched HBO directly through their cable providers, and another 6 million watched on DVR and streaming (for a total of 16.1 million on the evening it premiered). Last year’s 25.7 million per-episode average also accounts for all the people who watch later in the week (e.g., people who go to bed early or are working when it becomes available). Presumably, those calculations won’t be finalized until the season finale airs.
http://variety.com/2017/tv/news/game-of-thrones-season-7-premiere-ratings-1202497751/
Boojam,
My guess? The people in the boat with her 1) are people who have been advisors, not only political allies, and 2) are people who are all, like her, “homeless”: Grey Worm and Missandei, torn away from Narth; Tyrion, refused Casterly Rock by his father; and Varys, an impoverished boy who long ago made his way out of the gritty streets of Pentos.
Clob,
That appears to suggest that ingestion – presumably of the powder – is part of the cure. How that could be done without shredding the stomach lining…
We only see part of the text so maybe it is a red herring…
Does LH not look exactly like Liam Gallagher in that still? Hahahaha. Don’t look back in anger, Cersei!
Personally I’m wondering if Melisandre gets sent to Dorne to get Dawn and along the way does a Moqorro to Victarion with Ser Jorahs arm and the singing and the flames and Jorah ends up with a perfectly good super strong T-800 arm
Well spotted, I was thinking about pausing and reading those pages
In this case though while ingestion may be bad, applying some kind of liquid form of Dragonglass to the skin may stop Grayscale
Hey if the CoTF can stop Benjen from turning using Dragonglass (or apparently stabbing him like they stabbed NK…?) then perhaps it can be used to cure Jorah Connington of his greyscale
Stark Raven’ Rad,
You’re right – nice observation 🙂
Re: the possibility of dragonglass being used to cure Jorah’s greyscale – we still don’t actually know how Shireen was cured. Stannis only says that he consulted widely and refused to send her off to join the Stone Men. Shireen was cured on Dragonstone, so it isn’t impossible materials from the island were used as part of her treatment and Sam has just told us there’s a mountain of the stuff beneath the ground there.
This doesn’t seem to be the case, though. Shireen was cured a decade ago. It’s more likely that people who aren’t nobility don’t have access to treatment by Maesters and end up as stone men in Valyria. Also, as far as I know, there are no Maesters in Essos except those accompanying traveling or exiled lords of Westeros.
I meant to say this earlier. This was such a nice post-mortem, Vanessa. Thank you.
Ginevra,
Thank you!
ace of mace,
I am an HBO Now user and had no problem with the stream. Try the old fashioned modem reboot before the next episode!